Molecular diagnostics is a clinical laboratory discipline that has developed rapidly during the last 25 years. It originated from basic biochemistry and molecular biology research procedures, but now has become an independent discipline focused on routine analysis of nucleic acids (NA), including deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) for diagnostic use in healthcare and other fields involving analysis of nucleic acids. Molecular diagnostic analysis of biological samples can include the detection of one or more nucleic acid materials present in the specimen. The particular analysis performed may be qualitative and/or quantitative. Methods of analysis typically involve isolation, purification, and amplification of nucleic acid materials, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a common technique used to amplify nucleic acids. Often, a nucleic acid sample to be analyzed is obtained in insufficient quantity, quality, and/or purity, hindering a robust implementation of a diagnostic technique. Current sample processing methods and molecular diagnostic techniques are often labor/time intensive, low throughput, and expensive, and systems of analysis are insufficient. Furthermore, methods of isolation, processing, and amplification are specific to certain sample matrices and/or nucleic acid types and not applicable across common sample and nucleic acid types.
Due to these and other deficiencies of current molecular diagnostic systems and methods, there is thus a need for and improved system and method for processing and detecting nucleic acids. This invention provides such a system and method.